Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting has application in both residential and commercial implementations. LED lighting provides low maintenance costs, long life and reduced power consumption compared to more conventional lighting technologies. Another energy saving lighting technology is compact fluorescent lamps (CFL).
Lamps having LED light sources or CFL light sources, however, can be susceptible to overvoltage transients. In particular, the electronics that drive the LED or CFL lamp needs to be protected from transients. A metal oxide varistor (MOV) can protect the LED, or CFL, lamp's driver electronics from overvoltage surges by clamping short duration voltage impulses.
In CFL and LED lamp products, there is a very limited space in which to place these protection products. In conventional implementations, the MOV component can be placed on the circuit board containing the driver electronics (across the AC power input) so as to provide the overvoltage clamping protection against lightning-related, switching, and/or other electrical transients.